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My listening room is about 18 x 12 feet with a sloping ceiling that goes from 10 to 18 feet.  The speakers are under the higher ceiling side and fire across the narrow side of the room at one end.  My speakers are 8 feet apart and about the same distance from my listening position.  The left speaker is near a corner, hence its output is reinforced.  My NAD C 162 preamp has a balance control and I was turning the balance knob to about 2-3 o'clock, which worked well enough.  But the right channel of the preamp recently developed intermittent dropouts, so I replaced it with my 47 Labs 0447, which is a hair shirt passive pre with no provisions for balance control (my amp is a Classe CA-100).

The speakers are two-ways, Barzilay cabs with Tru-Sonic 15" woofers, and Radian 450-PB 8-ohm compression drivers, which sit atop the cabinets and are bolted to Altec 811B 8-cell horns.  Crossovers are Ewave-based.  Each speaker has a resistor pad for its horn, and I've lowered the output of the left speaker/boosted the right speaker, but that's not an ideal solution.  The pads don't control the woofers, and using them merely ameliorates the problem, doesn't solve it.

I can't move the speakers more than a few feet, so moving them won't help much.  I guess my options are to insert an inline RCA attenuator to the left channel--perhaps 3 dB?--between the preamp/amp?  Or I can wire a resistor in parallel to the right channel of the volume control of the preamp (thus lowering the total resistance)? 

Any other ideas short of psychotherapy or meds?   

[Mike B.]

You can do a bit of compensation by changing the axis or toe in. Try to rotate the dominant speaker more toward the center and the other with little or no rotation toward the center.

[moremoremore]

You can do a bit of compensation by changing the axis or toe in. Try to rotate the dominant speaker more toward the center and the other with little or no rotation toward the center.

Thanks for the suggestion.  I've already tried that, and it made some difference, but not enough for me.  I'm actually able to toe-in the LF and HF drivers independently, so there's a range of possibilities.  But still, no dice . . .

[roscoeiii]

You might be able to find some suggestions here, from a thread I started due to a similar issue in my set-up. Still haven't gotten around to trying any of these suggestions...

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=115669

[Hipper]

Can you move your listening position?

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Hipper: No can do.

roscoeiii: That will help!  Thanks.  I'll try a pot on one side, live with it for a while, then solder in the value that the pot's set at.

[WireNut]

  Each speaker has a resistor pad for its horn, and I've lowered the output of the left speaker/boosted the right speaker, but that's not an ideal solution. 

 I was going to suggest that because I experienced a similar problem in my system/room. Drove me crazy. What also helped me other then changing the resistors to the tweeters was to change the amount of Sonex acoustic foam I had on the wall behind one of the loudspeakers. Laying some Sonex up against my front door that's down the hallway from my listening position also helped. I just stick the foam in the closet by the door when I done listening. Doing something like that may not solve the whole problem but it might help.
Good Luck.

[moremoremore]

Hmm . . .

Not a bad idea!  I've never used room treatments before, and that might be the best solution for my needs.  Now if only I can find something that works that isn't as expensive as SONEX.

[audiogoober]

I had the same issue a few years ago. I switched preamps and the problem went away immediately. 

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Very funny.

I do have an Audible Illusions 2C under the bed that needs a new pot.  Not very wife friendly alas, with its dual mono pots and no remote, but it sure can sound good.

Or I can go mono.

[orientalexpress]

I had the same issue a few years ago. I switched preamps and the problem went away immediately.

Yep,i did the same thing.

[Nyal Mellor]

My listening room is about 18 x 12 feet with a sloping ceiling that goes from 10 to 18 feet.  The speakers are under the higher ceiling side and fire across the narrow side of the room at one end.  My speakers are 8 feet apart and about the same distance from my listening position.  The left speaker is near a corner, hence its output is reinforced.  My NAD C 162 preamp has a balance control and I was turning the balance knob to about 2-3 o'clock, which worked well enough.  But the right channel of the preamp recently developed intermittent dropouts, so I replaced it with my 47 Labs 0447, which is a hair shirt passive pre with no provisions for balance control (my amp is a Classe CA-100).

The speakers are two-ways, Barzilay cabs with Tru-Sonic 15" woofers, and Radian 450-PB 8-ohm compression drivers, which sit atop the cabinets and are bolted to Altec 811B 8-cell horns.  Crossovers are Ewave-based.  Each speaker has a resistor pad for its horn, and I've lowered the output of the left speaker/boosted the right speaker, but that's not an ideal solution.  The pads don't control the woofers, and using them merely ameliorates the problem, doesn't solve it.

I can't move the speakers more than a few feet, so moving them won't help much.  I guess my options are to insert an inline RCA attenuator to the left channel--perhaps 3 dB?--between the preamp/amp?  Or I can wire a resistor in parallel to the right channel of the volume control of the preamp (thus lowering the total resistance)? 

Any other ideas short of psychotherapy or meds?   

I would suggest measuring each speaker at the listening position and either EQing or using a balance control. Most of the time these differences are caused by SPL variance in the voice range - 100-300Hz being the key area I've found.

[Tone Depth]

Repair or replace your disabled preamp.

[tabrink]

This thread is very timely as I have spent countless hours dealing with this same problem and trying to eliminate it being my new pre.
My spl readings have it following the channel when I swap cables. 
Most likely it is the new pre but previous owner had no issues with it.

My listening room is about 18 x 12 feet with a sloping ceiling that goes from 10 to 18 feet.  The speakers are under the higher ceiling side and fire across the narrow side of the room at one end.  My speakers are 8 feet apart and about the same distance from my listening position.  The left speaker is near a corner, hence its output is reinforced.  My NAD C 162 preamp has a balance control and I was turning the balance knob to about 2-3 o'clock, which worked well enough.  But the right channel of the preamp recently developed intermittent dropouts, so I replaced it with my 47 Labs 0447, which is a hair shirt passive pre with no provisions for balance control (my amp is a Classe CA-100).

The speakers are two-ways, Barzilay cabs with Tru-Sonic 15" woofers, and Radian 450-PB 8-ohm compression drivers, which sit atop the cabinets and are bolted to Altec 811B 8-cell horns.  Crossovers are Ewave-based.  Each speaker has a resistor pad for its horn, and I've lowered the output of the left speaker/boosted the right speaker, but that's not an ideal solution.  The pads don't control the woofers, and using them merely ameliorates the problem, doesn't solve it.

I can't move the speakers more than a few feet, so moving them won't help much.  I guess my options are to insert an inline RCA attenuator to the left channel--perhaps 3 dB?--between the preamp/amp?  Or I can wire a resistor in parallel to the right channel of the volume control of the preamp (thus lowering the total resistance)? 

Any other ideas short of psychotherapy or meds?   

[moremoremore]

Inserting a baffle step compensation circuit (designed by Pete Basel to tame Advents) into the louder channel between my preamp and amp made a huge positive difference.  I have my stereo back!     Inserting the BSC circuit drops the frequency at 1 kHz 3 dB, which happens to be ideal for my needs.  I was afraid that the circuit might introduce some weird audio anomalies, but it sounds great to me.